Ready to do some spring cleaning? It’s never too late, or too early!

Spring is here! With the sun coming streaming in through the windows a little earlier, and sticking around a little later, I have started to dig through the clutter around my home and office that seems to accumulate during the winter months. You know, spring cleaning. You may be thinking about doing some spring cleaning at your house, cleaning out your own clutter. And maybe doing some work in your yard, and planting the spring flowers.

There is something empowering about spring cleaning. It is a way of putting the long, cold winter behind you, and opening your house up to the fresh air and sunshine. It gets you moving again. And it seems to give us a feeling of renewed well-being. A way of welcoming happier days into our lives. A new beginning.

So how about taking your spring cleaning to a whole new level by doing some spring cleaning on the inside – your mind, your emotions, your spirit? You can use the same approach as you use in your home. Clean out what’s not benefitting you. Make space for something better. Bring in things that brighten up your life.

Here are some ideas to help kick your spring cleaning up a notch or two:

Identify your clutter. Take a look inside and identify the areas of clutter that you might have allowed to build up in your life. What’s getting in the way of your health and well-being? Bad habits that have sneaked back in? Unhappy memories and resentments that are taking up too much space in your mind? Negative self-limiting attitudes? The starting place for your internal spring cleaning is to identify what you want to change.

Make a spring cleaning list. Go through your list and decide what your priorities are. What areas are most in need of cleaning? What’s most getting in the way of you having what you want in your life? Visualize yourself with a big broom. The goal is to sweep those dust bunnies, bag them, and take them to the curb.

Divide up the tasks. How is your support network? This might be a good time to think about the people in your life that you rely on for emotional support and who also rely on you. Have you been in touch lately? Is it time to spend some time with people you care about after hibernating all winter? Seeing a few too many empty spaces at the table? Maybe it’s time to strategize on bringing more people into your support network.

Polish the floors. What’s your foundation like these days? Your relationship with your treatment team? Your coping skills? This is a good time to take a close look at patching up the chips and scratches by spending some time online, making a few calls, and setting an appointment or two. Don’t forget that having a support network is an important part of your foundation.

Clean out your closet. Managing your self-care and the treatment of your chronic condition is a work in progress. Take a look at whatever may not fit the way that it used to. It might be time to touch base with your doctor about your medication regimen, including any questions that you haven’t gotten around to bringing up. Time to look at a new approach to your diet or exercise? Anything else you do to manage your condition need sprucing up? It’s important to constantly update your knowledge, your approach to managing your self-care, and to make sure that your regimen is up to date as well.

Wash the windows (you may have to unseal them first). What does the world look like when you look out your window? Is your view of the world clouded over in negative thinking and self-limiting beliefs that keep you feeling trapped? You know, like when you tell yourself what you can’t do, what’s too hard, what will never happen. Sure, chronic conditions can have a big effect on your life. Look at what’s good in your life, and what’s possible. And while you’re it, that negative self-talk doesn’t look good on you. Replace it with self-talk like “you’re doing okay,” “you don’t have to be perfect,” and “how about not beating up on myself?”

Let in some fresh air. One thing that chronic conditions teach is us that we aren’t in control of everything that happens in life. That also means that you don’t HAVE to be in control of everything. Identify what you can and can’t control, what you can know and what you can’t know. Relax the need to be in charge of everything. Not only are you not in control of everything, you don’t have to be in control. Isn’t that a relief? Take a few deep breaths. What you can control is your self-care. How about starting there?

Paint the ceiling a brighter color. When you look up, what do you see? Or haven’t you looked up lately? One way to approach a rough spot in your life is to tune up your spiritual life. Making a spiritual connection – whatever that means for you – can be a source of comfort during challenging times, and a way toward a clearer vision for yourself and the world around you.

And while you’re at it, you may want to actually clean your house. Your environment has a big impact on your emotions, so you might want to look around and decide how you can make your home reflect the work you are doing on the inside, and vice versa.

Caution: Remember those self-limiting attitudes? Don’t use spring cleaning as another reason to be too hard on yourself. Spring cleaning doesn’t have to happen during one long and exhausting Saturday. Making changes in your life is a process. Two steps forward, maybe a step back, and then another stop forward. Everybody progresses at their own pace. Be kind to yourself.

Spring is a state of mind. With or without the effects of winter, you can decide to do some mental spring cleaning any time that you feel like you need to clean out the cobwebs and shake yourself up. It’s always the right season of the year to become more empowered!

So… spring has sprung. How is your spring cleaning going? Where are you focusing your attention? Want to share your experiences? Need some advice?

5 replies

I certainly can vouch for myself. I worked hard cleaning this week. I am resting my back today from cleaning. But it feels good to have a really clean house. I did the up stairs windows on Saturday. I got all the cobb webs out of the corners. Those are daily, here in Florida. I also took my wisk like broom cleaner, with the long handle to dust off the ceiling fans. I used that for cleaning the awnings on the outside of the windows. I got allot of the pollen, little insects homes off, and it looks so much better. The next day was reserved for cleaning my husband's gril which took two hours. It was nasty. Which is his job or my son does it to. But it was neglected from a B-que in March. That's done. Next was cleaning behind the stove and refrigerator, in which I sprayed Dollar store cleaners on the wall and the floors. You have to get all the dirt from the corners of the base boards to. And do the base boards which are done. So now everything is completely done. I keep up with the closets, weekly, on laundry days. I do the dusting daily. Sweep and mop daily and as needed. Allot of work! But its clean!

With some prodding from my #1 supporter, I went to a few local greenhouses yesterday. Hubby and I now have a patio garden. A big step. Since we lost our home and my garden a year and a half ago I didn't have the heart to try to find an outlet for my genetic gardening gene. The memories didn't crowd in and overwhelm me like I feared they would. Selecting the (hopefully) perfect plants for containers was enjoyable. Although a few of the staff at one of the garden centers started avoiding us after watching us taking plants over to an area were some honeybees were to addition the plants. We only bought the variaties that the bees liked. Today I sat, enjoying the play of light and the breeze through purple blossoms. A little more of the joy of spring has returned to my life. There are still moments when what was casts long shadows over me. But they are only passing clouds briefly dimming the golden glow of sunshine.

Spring cleaning at my house when the house is over 100 years old will not end until next year. Tear out one wall, replace upstairs bathroom floor, replace kitchen floor, have kitchen cabinets installed, tear out builtin in kitchen, tear out one bedroom and bathroom ceiling and hang sheetrock, have new furnace and A/C unit installed, remove over 100 years of wall paper throughout the second floor, paint, the entire upstairs, have new front and back doors installed, have new windows installed and clean out basement. My sister and I will be spending a lot of time in our favorite store…Home Depot. Looking for volunteers with skills.